Past inventions for heating air have been mostly flat plate type of solar heaters. This type of heater is usually attached to a roof top that faces a southern direction in the northern hemisphere so as to be facing in the direction of the sun. The energy conversion of flat plate type of solar heaters is good when the sun rays come directly at the flat plate at an angle of 90 degrees. However, the conversion is very poor at low angles of solar rays such as 30 degrees which happens in the early morning and late afternoon. Also, the sun is constantly changing inclination. Therefore the flat plate can only reach full conversion at noon on a few days of the year if it is held in a fixed position. Of course, a flat plate can be moved continually or periodically which requires a moving device either manual or automatic.
Another type of solar heater is one which employs a reflector such as a parabolic cylinder. To be most effective this type of solar heater must be moved constantly so that the reflector is pointed in the direction of the sun. Then at least one axis is in the direction of the sun to concentrate the sun rays on a collector such as a pipe. Some means of moving the reflector is usually required either manual or automatic. Since the sun is constantly changing inclination during the year, the reflector must change direction to achieve maximum conversion.
In contrast to the past inventions, this new invention provides an almost constant collector area to the sun because it is round-like in shape. It is well known that a sphere does present a constant perpendicular area to the sun rays. So the dome-like shape is fashioned after a sphere and is half a sphere on the top. The half sphere protrudes from a base. Therefore, the dome-like structure collects radiation energy at low angles of solar rays in the early morning and late afternoon when conversion is almost the same as conversion at noon time. The conversion is as high in the winter as it is in the summer because no change of angle is needed to compensate for changes in inclination. The dome-like solar heater can remain in a fixed southerly position at all times in the northern hemisphere.
There have been past inventions which use a dome-like structure. For instance, there are tents that are airtight and that use air pressure to hold them up. One such tent utilizes the sun rays to heat the air and other things inside. Usually these tents have no structure inside, but utilize air pressure to hold them up. Of course there will be some air pressure in the new invention, but a collector structure holds the cover in place. There is one past invention that is a transparent long tube which is held up by air pressure. Radar domes are similar to the tents described above, are non-metallic and are opaque to sun rays. None of the inventions mentioned in this paragraph contains all of the features of the new invention.